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Your Board

Let Me Represent You: Share Your Opinion

Board Beet
By Your Board January 20, 2014

As board members, we have a fiduciary responsibility to every owner of Outpost Natural Foods. In other words, the nine of us have been elected with trust and confidence to help manage and protect the co-op’s interest. We do this through sound decision making and representation.

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Your Board

Cooperation in Action: Educating Consumers

Board Beet
By Your Board January 6, 2014

As we move forward into a brand new year, it’s a great time to take stock of the good that cooperatives like Outpost do.

 

One of the big things on my list? Education.

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Your Board

Food for Thought

Board Beet
By Your Board December 12, 2013

This past October, a group of about 30 owners and employees had the good fortune to participate in a national screening of Food for Change, a film produced, written and directed by Steve Alves.         

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Your Board

What Kind of Owner Are You

Board Beet
By Your Board November 5, 2013

Authors Karen Zimbelman and Marilyn Scholl wrote an article for food cooperative board directors titled: The Ownership Toolbox. They tried to define members of cooperatives by level of involvement. At Outpost, we refer to our members as owners. We hope that all shoppers someday choose to expand their involvement and become owners.  They can do this by purchasing a share of the cooperative. At the same time, we hope that all owners continue to expand their participation while enjoying their ownership. How would you define yourself as an owner? Do any of these definitions of participation come close?

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Your Board

It's Election Season, Let's Celebrate Cooperative Principle #2

Board Beet
By Your Board October 7, 2013


As a political junkie and policy nerd, I love cooperative principle #2: democratic control. It’s so elegant in its simplicity and so ultimately truthful that it stands as the fundamental electoral principle of our country and the goal of developing democracies throughout the world: one member, one vote.

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Your Board

My Dream Food Co-op

Board Beet
By Your Board July 16, 2013

One of the really cool parts of my day job at Feeding America is that I get to travel around the country to join, start, simplify, complicate, explicate, and otherwise advance some of the big conversations surrounding food, food access, hunger, and food systems. It’s really one of the favorite parts of my job.

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Your Board

Rejecting Planned Obsolescence

Board Beet
By Your Board June 24, 2013
My daughter’s birthday is over and packaging from well intentioned gifts has left the house. Well, all accept one box. My daughter received a typically toddler toy with noises and flashing colors, nothing special really. However, it truly was a special gift! This toy came inside packaging that was designed to be used again. The thick box has an attractive plaid pattern on the outside and looks like something purchased at a fancy crafts store.
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Your Board

Should Nutrition be taught right alongside math and science?

Board Beet
By Your Board May 28, 2013
“They should be teaching this in high school,” commented one owner at a recent class I took by Outpost nutritionist Judy Mayer on gluten-free options held at the State Street store. Her question got me thinking, should nutritional eating be a part of the curriculum right alongside math and science?  Should it just be at the high school level, or sooner than that, grade school perhaps or even earlier? 
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Your Board

Confessions of a Board Member

Board Beet
By Your Board May 13, 2013

 

I have been an Outpost Board Member since November of 2012 and would like to share some insights since walking into that board room six months ago.
 
But first let me step back a little. Last year when I was mulling over sending in nomination papers it occurred to me that perhaps being a board member was something I may not be qualified for. Looking back I was right to feel hesitant but wrong in my qualification assumption. It all comes down to a few things I have either learned or verified over the past half year.
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Your Board

Doing More to Support Local

Board Beet
By Your Board April 26, 2013

 

I am in the middle of a modest household project. Inevitably, when head off to the hardware store to get some parts, I find myself in a conundrum of sorts.  
 
Do I patronize the locally owned hardware store?  
 
Or do I head off to the big box store?
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Your Board

Thank You for Your Passion

Board Beet
By Your Board March 19, 2013

 

Dear Outpost Owners,

After having a few days to digest our annual meeting, we wanted to take a moment to  recognize your level of commitment to our cooperative.  Some of us shop, use re-usable bags and cups, donate time or money to Outpost organized community events, submit comments, fill out our surveys, read our website, follow and respond to our blogs, and attend owner events. We vote. And we celebrate our cooperative’s ongoing commitment to help our community.  We even recruit friends and family to attend the annual meeting to support our values.

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Your Board

Saving Seeds = Saving Our Planet

Board Beet
By Your Board March 5, 2013

An e-mail recently appeared in my inbox that really got me thinking about the sustainability of current conventional farming practices. The e-mail contained a link to a report by the Center for Food Safety as part of its Save Our Seeds (SOS) initiative (http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/campaign/save-our-seeds/). The report, Seed Giants vs. U.S. Farmers, highlights the ongoing practice of seed companies suing farmers for patent infringement when their fields are discovered to contain genetically engineered (GE or trangenic) crops, even though the farmers hadn't purchased GE seeds from the companies. The seed companies allege that farmers are knowingly saving seeds from prior year GE crops, or are obtaining GE seeds from “seed cleaners,” who specialize in the practice of processing seeds from prior years to use for subsequent plantings. According to the seed companies, these practices are expressly prohibited by the technology agreements signed by farmers who use GE seeds.

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Your Board

Outpost's Ugandan Connection

Board Beet
By Your Board February 12, 2013

Outpost board members engage in a vast number of activities related to the mission and values of Outpost Natural Foods. One great example happens to be the work of board director Suzanne Garr, whose involvement with the children of St. Mary Kevin, a school and orphanage in Uganda, Africa.

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Your Board

Film Focuses on Food Co-ops

Board Beet
By Your Board January 8, 2013

Last June, I had the good fortune to attend the Consumer Cooperative Management Association (CCMA) annual meeting in Philadelphia. It may sound like a big yawn, but it isn’t. One of the more interesting events was the screening of the completed part of a film by Steve Alves entitled Food for Change: The Twin Cities Story. Steve is a member of the Franklin Community Co-op in Greenfield, MA, and decided to research and produce this film which highlights a colorful history of the cooperative movement in the US.

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Your Board

No Comparison: Cooperatives Versus Traditional Retail

Board Beet
By Your Board December 18, 2012

 

A recent study released by the National Cooperative Grocer’s Association (NCGA) should make you feel pretty good about shopping at Outpost.

Why?


Well, because the report underscores the many ways that coops surpass the competition when it comes to creating economic and social impact on their communities.

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Your Board

Who Are Your Neighbors?

Board Beet
By Your Board December 11, 2012

 

Despite the rain, sleet, and snow on Dec. 9, forty-two local Milwaukee neighbor businesses and organizations got together as well as 940 attendees, for the 4th Annual “Buy Local Gift Fair” held at Lakefront Brewery. This 4th annual, amazing holiday shopping event was sponsored by Local First Milwaukee, Lakefront Brewery, and Outpost Natural Foods.

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Your Board

16, 834 Owners - We Missed You!

Board Beet
By Your Board December 4, 2012

As a cooperative business, our owners choose the team of individuals (Board of Directors) who will determine the business goals (Ends) and oversee general management’s strategy (Means) for accomplishing those goals.  Ideally, each Director will represent at least one aspect of the diversity of our ownership population. 

In other words:  You have an opportunity to select YOUR ambassador in the leadership of your Outpost.

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Your Board

A Visit to Walnut Way

Board Beet
By Your Board October 30, 2012

On Saturday, October 6, I had the pleasure of attending Harvest Day at Walnut Way, on 17th and North Avenue.  The entire 2200 block of N. 17th Street was blocked off for the celebration, with a large sound truck on the north end, providing a stage and sound system for talk and music.

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Your Board

One Word: Plastics

Board Beet
By Your Board July 31, 2012


Looking back through history, we see various “ages,” such as Iron, Bronze, Enlightenment, and the depressingly and aptly named, Dark. How will history look back at our present age? One answer may be the Age of Plastic. Looking around us, and how our way of life has changed in the past 100 years, it would be difficult to argue that this isn’t the Age of Plastic. If you still need convincing, walk around your house, your neighborhood, or your grocery store. Envision this walk without any plastic. Going even further, image life after this walk without all this plastic, and think what life would be like.

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Your Board

Is Wheat Dangerous? Book Makes Compelling Argument

Board Beet
By Your Board July 20, 2012

I recently had the opportunity to read a very interesting book on a possible cause of the obesity facing us today, “Wheat Belly,” by William Davis, MD. It is alleged by Dr. Davis that wheat is a primary underlying cause of much of our obesity as well as a myriad of other health issues plaguing us today. More precisely, it is a complex carbohydrate, Amylopectin A, that is the culprit that causes higher spikes in blood sugar than a candy bar, ice cream or even table sugar itself.

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